Why, Charlie Brown, Why? (1990)
Why, Charlie Brown, Why? Review
Why, Charlie Brown, Why? is a 1990 animated television special and the 33rd entry in the Peanuts series. It is the most serious entry so far.
Linus befriends the new kid in school Janice, but she gets cancer and we follow him coping with the situation. Yes, this special surely is groundbreaking when its mature subject matter is concerned and not just for this series, but for animation in general. And although I would have liked for them to not constantly introduce new characters for just one episode and it does get too emotional at times, this was mostly well handled.
I loved Linus here and it shows him at his most compassionate. Janice is so adorable and you can’t help but feel for her. The entire cancer story is so well executed with so much care and some needed detail to teach the children watching the special. As for Lucy, she was awfully mean this time around, but still funny. And Sally was really funny in the first act. Snoopy also has his moments. Those comedic moments with these three characters help soften an otherwise very depressing special. And I have to say that that ending was just indescribably beautiful and wonderful.
“Yes, this special surely is groundbreaking when its mature subject matter is concerned and not just for this series, but for animation in general.”
I wouldn’t exactly say that. Animation had long before the time this special aired tackled very adult and serious subject matter. I can’t off the top of my head recall anything involving cancer but plenty of British and Japanese films dealt with death and radiation and the like that would lead to such a disease, such as When the Wind Blows, Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen.
I agree about those films, but I specifically meant the cancer subject itself, I really cannot think of any previous animation dealing with cancer myself.